Munchie Monday: Quick and Easy Green Juice

Lenny Gale's YouTube channel is so instructive and motivating to me.  He and Shalva put up lots of good recipes.  The latest one I have tried is his Green Juice recipe.

Mine was a little different than his, but it tasted really good anyway.

This uses a high speed blender.  I don't know if a less powerful one will do the trick to liquify everything.  Maybe if run a lot longer...?

This is how I made it because of what I had on hand:

In the blender put in this order:
1.5 cups of water
1 cored apple
1 peeled banana
a small chunk of fresh ginger
2 small dried up peeled clementines
a big handful of chopped raw kale, stems and all
3 cups ice (the ice needs to go on top)


Turn it on to blend on high for 90 seconds, then pour out into glasses. 

NOTE:  This is NOT a thick smoothie, but is in actuality green JUICE, just like Lenny said!

Because I was unsure of the taste, I only poured half a glass for Dear One and for myself.  It was really good!  Dear One liked it, too.  There was leftover juice which I put in the refrigerator to drink later.

Thanks, Lenny and Shalva!  #lifeisnoyoke

Food Friday: Two-Step Chunky Microwave Applesauce

We had a fair number of apples left over from Zone Conference last month.  I wondered if we could make baked apples in the microwave.  Mind you, I am not that much a fan of baked apples but I thought that might use up a good few of the apples.

The first step was to get a nice glass bowl for the microwave at Goodwill.  The bowl is a fabulous bowl.  Nice and heavy and the perfect size.

Next I cut four apples in half and scooped out the core, placed them in the bowl (overlapping a little bit) then sprinkled on a little brown sugar, then dotted with butter.  Finally I put them in the microwave at the office and cooked them for 5 minutes on high.

After five minutes the apples were mostly softened but not mush.  I was only able to talk one person in the office to try one.  Since that did not go as I had hoped, I put the bowl in the refrigerator overnight.

Today I brought my little Ninja Food Chopper Express to the office and chopped up those cold apples.  It made wonderful chunky applesauce!  In no time flat!

By the way, this is NOT the nice heavy glass bowl from Goodwill...!

Winter Flowers!

The day before staff meeting last month I was at Winco doing a little grocery shopping: in particular refilling our carrot coffers.  Carrots are a nice treat and something we like to keep in the office to go along with all the junky treats we also offer.

As I approached Winco's front door I walked past the outside plant shelves.  There were some wonderful-looking flowers there that grabbed my attention. I picked one up and brought it inside to purchase.  When I chose this one, it had no blossoms but lots of buds.

Here is that plant today!  So beautiful and cheery.

This plant makes me so happy.  Sister B gave me some fertilizer for it, so I hope I can keep it alive for a long time.  We shall see.

A Watercolor Attempt at a Birch Tree

Birthdays are coming fast and furious in our family and among our friends.  I tried a fall birch tree scene again that I had enjoyed watching The Frugal Crafter teach us.  Rather pitiful result but fun to try. I may try again soon.

Rather than tell you all the things I don't like about this, I will say what I learned.

1.  Cheap watercolor paper does not always give the results you might hope for.  I love making clouds but the clouds did not make it on this paper.  Sadly, I am not sure which paper this was as the cover is missing.  I believe I had better luck with Strathmore watercolor paper.

2.  It is possible to paint in many different locations and pretty much with whatever you have around you.  I wanted the have this picture have a white border.  To do this on the actual painting you need to tape the paper to something first.  Since I did this work at the office I discovered that my desk calendar was just the right size to tape down a 4.5 by 6 piece of watercolor paper.

3.  Wasting supplies annoys me.  However, when starting with 9 by 12 watercolor paper, which you can cut into perfect quarters, means that the card to which you affix the painting wastes some of the underlying card.  I found that cutting the card stock 10 by 6.5 gives a pretty nice foundation.  If I want to not waste the card stock, I cut that 4.25 by 11 which gives me two nice card bases, but then the painting has to be cut down, so, either cut down the watercolor paper first to fit the card base, or go with the wasted card stock with the larger painting.  This did leave a nice 2 by 11 piece of card stock plus a little 1 by 6.5 inch piece to play with.

4.  To have a better painting, more time is needed.

5.  To make a card I really like includes a foundation card stock I really like.  I have recently cut up a whole package of 8.5 by 11 Park Lane card stock in floral designs.  I cut two cards from each sheet so those cards either need the watercolor paper to be cut smaller (or wasted) OR I need to do something else for the front of the card.  I might go back to splatter painting with pen and ink drawings of some nature.

Either way (either I like what I produce, or I don't) it is so enjoyable to make cards for loved ones.  Since I cannot be there in person for everyone,  it makes me happy to reach with cards I have made with my hands.

Miracles

Dear One and I were reading the scriptures.  This time it was Matthew 8 and Matthew 9 in the King James New Testament.  These chapters recount some of the early miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ.   I noticed something about them that I had not really thought of before. 

1.  The leper worshipped Him then asked to be made clean.  Actually, the leper said that if the Savior would, He could heal the leper.  And the Savior said, "I will." And he was healed.

2.  When Jesus entered Capernaum a centurion begged Jesus to heal his ailing servant. Jesus said He would come and heal him, but the centurion felt unworthy and told the Savior if He just said the word, that his servant could be healed.  And He did and the servant was healed.

3.  Peter's mother-in-law was sick of a fever when Jesus came to the house.  He just touched her and she was healed and arose and then ministered unto them herself.

4.  When the Savior entered His own city, people brought a man sick of the palsy to Him to be healed.  Jesus recognized their faith and healed the man.

5.  One of the most interesting of the miracles was a ruler came to Jesus and told Jesus that his daughter was dead and if Jesus would just come and lay His hand upon her, she would live.  And Jesus did it.

The thing that I noticed about these miracles this time reading through them was that in most of these instances, and many others I am remembering,  people came to Jesus with faith in their hearts and minds and worshipped Him, and then asked Him to heal either themselves or their loved and needed ones.  These people all had faith in Jesus and in His ability to heal them.  Then they asked.

Can it not be the same for us?  I know He can heal me and those I care about of our various infirmities.  I think we just need to ask with that same faith as our brothers and sisters asked in the meridian of time, and He will heal us, too.    Just ask.  That same ask and ye shall receive; knock and it shall be opened unto you.  I have a good mind to ask more often, even though we have already had miracles in our lives, which I may talk about another time.

How I love the words of the scriptures!  They bless my life and give me hope and peace and comfort and strength to keep moving forward.

Munchie Monday: Carrot Ginger Soup, more or less

Carrots are supposed to be good for you.   Lots of reasons why.  So, when I found a recipe for Carrot Ginger Soup I was thinking of the wonderful Butternut Squash Soup that our dear friend has made for us.  That soup is so luscious and smooth and just plain delicious.  This carrot soup looks sort of like that soup, but it does not taste like that soup.  At all. Sadly.  Surprising, really.  So I made a few changes.

Carrot Ginger Soup

5 cups vegetable broth (the original recipe called for 4 cups, but I had five cups in the jar and did not want to leave a lonely cup in there by itself)
10 large carrots, cut into chunks (since we had several that were becoming rather limp, I thought this was a good use for them so I put them all in.  The original recipe called for 6-10 large carrots>)
1 large sweet onion, diced rather large . (This one was a Mayan Sweet, I think.  Love those.)
1 1/2 inch of ginger, minced (This made a little over 1 Tablespoon of grated ginger for which I used the little Ninja Express my sister sent me.  Such a great piece of equipment!  I am so grateful for it. Use it all the time. ALL the time!)
2-3 teaspoons avocado oil
Salt and Pepper, granulated garlic, granulated onion, and Kirkland No-Salt Seasoning to taste
Plus cooked black beans in individual bowls, if you wish.

Sauté the onions in the oil for about 3 minutes, or more, until translucent.

Add the carrots and stir occasionally.  They will need to cook at least 10 minutes and maybe 15-20 until the carrots are mostly tender.

Add the broth and seasonings, and cook further until you are certain the carrots are soft.  Remove from heat and, using an immersion blender, turn the soup into a lovely soft purée.

Serve with chopped chives or scallions on top, and as I did, add a few tablespoons of black beans to up the protein content.

This soup was really rather good.  The next day I took it cold out of the refrigerator and put a couple of servings in the Vita-mix and blended it further.  It did have the nice smooth texture of the Butternut Squash soup after blending, but not the taste. I should have known.  That is why I added all the ingredients in the seasoning list beyond the salt and pepper above.  It really was rather bland before adding them. I actually added more to my mug afterwards...

Food Friday: Quick and Easy Two-Bean Chili

Quick and Easy food is critically important here!  When we come home from the office we are ready to eat NOW, so I am getting better at making things fast.  I don't suppose it counts as "homemade" if it is all cans but...

Today's recipe was truly quick.  We had three partial jars of different salsas in the refrigerator.  They had been open for a while so they needed to be used.  We had a can of green chilis and two different beans in the cupboard so I put them all together, heated them in a flash and we were eating.

These were quite mild and added good flavor.

These salsas were purchased so we could decide once and for all what salsa we liked best.  I think Pace was the winner here.  The other one had vinegar in it.

This salsa was a one-time deal.  It was good in the chili but not good alone.

This was fast chili that I only added a teaspoon of cumin to the pot to make it tasty.  Of course there were leftovers, which to me is a good thing because there was at least a second instant meal in the refrigerator.

You can't go wrong with red kidney beans and great northern beans add a nice creaminess to any recipe.